Straight out of the Florida Department of Oh-No-You-Didn’t, Governor-elect Ron DeSantis and other Republican politicians are now claiming they need to “implement” the ballot measure that citizens approved to automatically restore voting rights to felons who have paid their debts to society. DeSantis and Florida Senate President Bill Galvano, among others, ignore that we already […]

Straight out of the Florida Department of Oh-No-You-Didn’t, Governor-elect Ron DeSantis and other Republican politicians are now claiming they need to “implement” the ballot measure that citizens approved to automatically restore voting rights to felons who have paid their debts to society.

Welcome to yet another Florida episode of politicians thwarting the voters’ will, just like when state leaders distorted the directives voters gave them to buy conservation land in the 2014 Water and Land Conservation Initiative, the 2016 medical marijuana amendment, and the 2002 amendment to reduce class sizes, among other examples.

DeSantis and Galvano publicly opposed Amendment 4, a historic reform of our state’s embarrassing civil rights restoration process. It’s an Alice-in-Wonderland bureaucratic odyssey which ends in a humiliating moment where supplicants stand in the Capitol begging the fickle Governor and Cabinet members “Please, sir, may I have a vote?”

Florida is only one of four states still holding onto this unseemly scenario, which is as much a vestige of our racist Southern past as a KKK uniform tucked up in the attic. This process started about 150 years ago, with African Americans disproportionally convicted by a racist legal system and robbed of their right to vote as a means to suppress their participation in state affairs and bolster white supremacy.

On Nov. 6, Florida voters rejected this throwback process for felon voting restoration in favor of an automatic one, like most other states employ. Amendment 4 says: “Voting Restoration Amendment: This amendment restores the voting rights of Floridians with felony convictions after they complete all terms of their sentence including parole or probation. The amendment would not apply to those convicted of murder or sexual offenses, who would continue to be permanently barred from voting unless the Governor and Cabinet vote to restore their voting rights on a case by case basis.”

It is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 8. But now, the Florida Legislature is pledging to get involved, and DeSantis says he wants legislators to produce a bill next spring. That’s setting up a Titanic Tallahassee Tussle.

When word came out about these new developments last week, various versions of OH HELL, NO! echoed across our sunny state.

“This is non-negotiable,” Florida Democratic House Leader Kionne McGhee said on Twitter last week.

State Senate Democratic Leader Audrey Gibson of Jacksonville threw shade, reminding DeSantis that Amendment 4 “was endorsed by 64 percent of the voters, an overwhelming margin much greater than the 49.7 percent by which he won his own election to the governor’s office.”

If the Republicans are planning to drag this out until March, it will have some troubling political consequences. By that time, vote-by-mail and early voting for mayoral races in several large municipalities – including Central Florida, Tampa and Jacksonville, will already be happening.

“A delay would be in direct opposition of the will of Florida voters,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida Interim Executive Director Melba Pearson said in a statement. “The only responsibility Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis has right now is to direct state agencies to proceed without delay to register voters consistent with state law, including Amendment 4. He could go the extra step of demonstrating his leadership by encouraging legislators not to impede implementation of Amendment 4 with needless legislation.

Listen: I know most us wish that political battles ended on Election Day, or when a landmark law finally gets passed, but they don’t. Think of the incremental court wins and losses in the civil rights movement, in women’s suffrage, in every battle for reforms which threaten the powers that be. So even when we hold a popular vote, even when we meet that extra-hard threshold of a 60 percent majority needed to pass a Florida Constitutional amendment, we’re not necessarily finished fighting.

To make matters worse, we often end up paying our tax dollars for government lawyers to fight against us. That’s what’s happening in the case of the Water and Land Conservation Initiative, where voters directed that the state spend a portion of the money it already collects on real estate transactions to buy conservation land. That amendment got 75 percent of the vote – more than any candidate on the ballot that year. Yet we’ve been paying for agency lawyers and pricey contracted private firms to fight us in court for years.

The old complaint among Florida’s chattering political class about making amendments to the state Constitution was that the Constitution was a sacred, bedrock document and it shouldn’t be messed with.

That stern muttering was oft-heard back in the days when political norms seemed to make sense in this state, when separation of powers and due process and fair debate were actual goals. In this mercenary landscape of self-dealing narcissists that we now inhabit, things look a lot different when it comes to amending the Florida Constitution.

Constitutional amendment petition drives are happening because a frustrated public needs a way to get around the special-interest stranglehold on our state office-holders. Amending the state Constitution is the only form of direct democracy available to us. And, as we can plainly see, even that doesn’t always work.

The powers-that-be want us to lose confidence in this process. They want us to believe that our vote doesn’t matter, and they want us to lose faith in democracy, because real democracy doesn’t work for them. What works for them? Authoritarianism, oligarchy, racism, fear, doubt, and xenophobia. The only check against that entitled, divisive world view is us.

So now we have to do our hard work as citizens: Stand up for what we believe in and muster the stamina to see it through.

]]>https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/18/we-meant-what-we-voted/feed/3174559An attorney/politician will lead Florida’s massive education system — and it won’t be easyhttps://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/17/an-attorney-politician-will-lead-floridas-massive-education-system-and-it-wont-be-easy/
https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/17/an-attorney-politician-will-lead-floridas-massive-education-system-and-it-wont-be-easy/#respondMon, 17 Dec 2018 23:03:19 +0000https://www.floridaphoenix.com/?p=174564Quality Journalism for Critical Times

Former House Speaker Richard Corcoran – a lawyer and astute politician with no education credentials – will be Florida’s new Education Commissioner, taking on a complex role encompassing school finance, education policy, academic standards, and diverse constituencies ranging from teacher unions to charter school advocates to the Florida PTA. He’ll be working on behalf of […]

Former House Speaker Richard Corcoran – a lawyer and astute politician with no education credentials – will be Florida’s new Education Commissioner, taking on a complex role encompassing school finance, education policy, academic standards, and diverse constituencies ranging from teacher unions to charter school advocates to the Florida PTA.

He’ll be working on behalf of urban and rural schools, teachers, administrators and most of all kids who come from all backgrounds and circumstances but, as Corcoran says, can aspire to be “lovers of life-long learning.”

He’ll also face challenges in bringing students up to par. Despite some improvements in performance at the grade school level, most high school teens tested aren’t prepared for college-level work after graduation, based on data from the ACT and SAT college entrance exams.

And Corcoran will be held responsible for pushing through Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis’s education agenda, which includes a controversial expansion of scholarship programs for kids to attend private schools with public dollars.

Florida’s school system is the third-largest in the nation, with some 2.8-million K-12 students. And the Education Commissioner also oversees the system of state colleges, sometimes referred to as community colleges. (The state university system is separate.)

“He’s got some learning to do,” Florida Education Association president Fedrick Ingram said about Corcoran, who was approved unanimously Monday by the State Board of Education.

The union preferred a commissioner with an education background — current Education Commissioner Pam Stewart has spent nearly 40 years in education, starting out as a classroom teacher, though other past commissioners have not had education credentials.

The union and other advocacy groups also pushed for the state board to do a national search to pick the best candidate – which is the more typical route when it comes to choosing a statewide school superintendent or commissioner.

Instead, DeSantis recently recommended Corcoran for the job and the state board quickly went along, despite an uproar of angry tweets, petitions, postcards, letters and emails from opponents. At the same time, supporters, such as former Gov. Jeb Bush, endorsed DeSantis’s choice for Education Commissioner.

While he has no education credentials, Corcoran, 53, has been one of the most powerful House Speakers in decades and has represented influential Pasco County in the state Legislature. He is a Republican.

For the most part, he was a product of public schools. He attended elementary through high school public schools, public community colleges and the University of Florida, ultimately finishing his bachelor’s degree at Saint Leo College, a Catholic institution north of Tampa. It’s now Saint Leo University.

He went on to graduate from a small law school at Regent University, a private Christian university. He’s been a champion of nontraditional charter schools run by private groups, and scholarship programs that allow students to go to private schools using public dollars. His wife has been involved in founding and overseeing charter schools.

Given the controversial pick – and the lack of a national search — the State Board of Education first heard from its general counsel on Monday.

General Counsel Matthew Mears told the board that it has the responsibility to appoint a Commissioner of Education but there’s no particular process in law or the state Constitution to make the selection.

The process is at the discretion of the board, Mears said.

That means a national search wasn’t required, though that didn’t stop people who came to the meeting to express their views prior to the vote on Corcoran’s appointment. Those people were still calling upon the board to do a national search.

Several more people made comments, praising Corcoran and supporting his appointment.

Before voting, the state board asked Corcoran to come to the podium in the Capitol meeting room to talk about the job and then answer pointed questions from board members. The questioning lasted for more than an hour.

Board member Gary Chartrand called Corcoran a school choice advocate – meaning families can choose schools other than those in their neighborhoods. “What do you say to the critic that believes you’re taking money from the district and weakening traditional schools?”

“I reject the premise,” Corcoran said.

Still, Corcoran will be pressed to expand school choice options for parents, under DeSantis’s plans.

In fact, when board members asked what Corcoran will do as Education Commissioner in various areas, he usually said he would be following DeSantis’s plans.

While the board approved Corcoran’s appointment, the details still need to be worked out, including his salary. Current commissioner Stewart has been earning $276,000, according to state data. That’s one of the highest salaries in the country for a state school superintendent.

At the end of the meeting, people in the audience Monday clapped when the state board approved Corcoran.

And following the meeting, Corcoran and FEA’s Ingram were cordial, speaking together about meeting and discussing various education issues. The union also invited Corcoran to visit some public schools.

But others were disappointed, including The League of Women Voters of Florida, which had urged the state board to do a national search. League president Patricia Brigham said in a press release:

“Even if the Board ultimately agreed with Governor-elect Ron DeSantis’s recommendation for the post of Commissioner of Education — which they clearly did — the Board still had a duty to the children and parents of Florida: To conduct a thorough search for qualified candidates from around the state and country, as they have done in the past.

Few things are as important as the education of our children. Unfortunately, the circumstances surrounding this appointment do nothing to alleviate the concerns of everyday Floridians that this is simply, ‘politics as usual.’

All the same, we look forward to meeting and working with Commissioner Corcoran to work on public education policy that will benefit all Floridians.”

Controversy is stirring over picks on Governor-elect Ron DeSantis’s education advisory committee, with critics calling on DeSantis to remove two members accused of being “radical idealogues.” The two men, Keith Flaugh and Rick Stevens, are managing directors of Collier County’s Florida Citizens’ Alliance, described as a nonprofit, grassroots coalition providing “common sense solutions for K-12 […]

Controversy is stirring over picks on Governor-elect Ron DeSantis’s education advisory committee, with critics calling on DeSantis to remove two members accused of being “radical idealogues.”

The two men, Keith Flaugh and Rick Stevens, are managing directors of Collier County’s Florida Citizens’ Alliance, described as a nonprofit, grassroots coalition providing “common sense solutions for K-12 education in Florida.”

Their website states: “Florida children are being indoctrinated in a public school system that undermines their individual rights and destroys our founding principles and family values.”

Meanwhile, a parent group called Collier County School Board Watch has taken to social media to air its concerns about the Florida Citizens’ Alliance and two of the men — Flaugh and Stevens — appointed to DeSantis’s education advisory committee. DeSantis recently named more than 40 people to the team. (The parent group is not affiliated with the Collier County School District, according to the district.)

In a Facebook post, the parent group said: “Whether through Facebook or Twitter, please share our call for Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis to remove two radical ideologues from his education transition team. See our Twitter feed for ALL the surprising revelations about the Florida Citizens’ Alliance. Did DeSantis even vet them?”

Among the parent group’s concerns: Textbooks.

The Florida Citizens’ Alliance posts a “2018 Objectionable Materials Curriculum Report” that identifies such materials in several counties, including Collier. The areas of concern and/or violations of the law, according to the Alliance, include pornography, reconstructed history, political indoctrination, religious indoctrination and science.

For example, a collection of short stories cited in the analysis includes content related to victimization, racism and bigotry.

“These do not teach our children to be good citizens, but victims of an oppressive culture and teach moral values that demonstrate ‘anything goes,'” according to the analysis.

In honors and Advanced Placement classes, the analysis states, stories include issues of marital infidelity and promiscuity, among other descriptions.

One book, used for honors-level work, is deemed in the analysis as “not age-appropriate for any grade level using public taxpayer dollars.”

It’s “Angela’s Ashes,” a memoir written by the late Frank McCourt that won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize. McCourt chronicled a miserable childhood of poverty and near starvation, “yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness,” according to the Pulitzer Prize Board.

Another book — described in the analysis as usurping the “family’s responsibility to teach family values,” is “The Bluest Eye.”

It’s a novel written by acclaimed author Toni Morrison, who’s won a Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The book, containing topics of racism, incest and other controversial themes, has been on a list of “most challenged” books by the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, which condemns censorship and tracks attempts to ban books in schools and libraries, according to its website.

In the social studies category, the Alliance’s analysis describes a U.S. history book that “glorifies collectivism, the elimination of private property and the elimination of God-given rights.”

And a 6th grade-level world history book includes several dozen pages on Islam that at best presents an unbalanced view, according to the analysis, stating “It has no place in our schools where Judeo-Christian beliefs have been the foundation of America.”

A “flawed” environmental science book in the analysis has “extensive errors” and includes “major chapters that teach man-made global warming and evolution as proven science.”

Flaugh, of Florida Citizens’ Alliance, said he was not aware of the parent group that is calling for his ouster from the DeSantis transition committee. But he said that his organization has been criticized before, adding “Progressives are very upset that we’re defending our Constitutional rights.”

Flaugh also told the Phoenix that he and his colleague Stevens are “excited to be on the transition team.”

The Alliance does post other material on its website, including graduation rates and Florida’s average score on the ACT college entrance exam compared to other states. Florida’s average is below the national average.

At the education advisory committee meeting last week, members praised Florida public schools and talked about marketing and advertising education success stories.

But Flaugh spoke out about the performance of high school students, based on ACT college entrance exams scores, saying, “We are well below the national average and we have not been improving.”

Whether DeSantis would remove the two men from the Florida Citizens’ Alliance is not clear.

But on the campaign trail, DeSantis’s education platform included the phrase “founding principles” — similar to the Alliance’s words — related to a section on “American Constitutional principles in civics classes.”

That aim was: “To equip Florida students to be well-rounded citizens, Ron DeSantis will work with the Legislature to develop and pass policies that ensure a renewed emphasis on teaching America’s founding principles and ensure that the Constitution is put back into the classroom.”

T.K. Wetherell was one of a kind. A few days shy of his 73rd birthday, the former house speaker, former president of Florida State University and Tallahassee Community College entered Margaret Z. Dozier Hospice House, signaling the end of a 15-year battle against cancer. Friends said he died at 2:25 pm. Sunday. He will not be forgotten. […]

A few days shy of his 73rd birthday, the former house speaker, former president of Florida State University and Tallahassee Community College entered Margaret Z. Dozier Hospice House, signaling the end of a 15-year battle against cancer. Friends said he died at 2:25 pm. Sunday. He will not be forgotten.

Wetherell was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003, a few days after being named president of FSU, the university where he once starred on the football team and devoted much of his energy.

He fought the disease with surgery, radiation and chemo treatments at the Mayo Clinic In Jacksonville, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Sloan-Kettering Cancer center in New York and most recently at Duke University. He also went to Mexico and took a holistic treatment in Reno, trying every possible means of defeating his recurring cancer.

His staff at FSU marveled at a president who would go to Jacksonville on Monday afternoons, get radiation or chemo treatments, get up early on Tuesday mornings and get another round of treatment before returning to his office in Tallahassee to finish the work day.

“He never missed a day in the week,’’ said David Coburn, his chief of staff and longtime friend. “He was the toughest guy I’ve ever known. There was a lot of pain and suffering and so many surgeries. He tried every option, hoping he could stay alive long enough for someone to find a cure.’’

One of the treatments he sought involved sending a blood sample out of the country and getting back a chemo designed to match Wetherell’s DNA. Federal officials refused to let the treatment into the country because it had not been approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration. In typical Wetherell style, he found a way around the problem by having it sent to a Native American reservation near his summer home in Montana.

There he found a “medicine man” and got the chemo he wanted, friends recalled.

As a college president, Wetherell often took an interest in individual students and their problems.

Coburn’s wife, Mary, the vice president of student affairs at FSU, recalls days when Wetherell would come into the office with a note taken the night before when Wetherell encountered parents or students at dinner. Sometimes it was something as simple as a student who failed to get a letter noting he had made the dean’s list. Wetherell made sure a letter would go out.

“Walking across campus with President Wetherell was like walking with a rock star,’’ Mrs. Coburn noted. Everybody wanted to talk to him and he frequently wrote personal notes to those who helped him.

On campus, the staff nicknamed him “Elvis,’’ and noted when he was “in the house.’’ They also called him Wiley Coyote and Dennis the Menace,’’ recalled Betty Steffens, former general counsel at FSU. When he wanted a stained glass window put in one of the buildings, Wetherell made sure it depicted famed coach Bobby Bowden talking to players. One of those players wore a jersey with the number 28 – the number Wetherell wore when he played.

“There’s a lot of love out there for the old boy,’’ said former House Speaker James Harold Thompson, a Tallahassee lawyer from nearby Quincy. “We were lucky to have served with him.’’

Old friends recall his great sense of humor and his wily moves as a politician and president of FSU and TCC.

Former Secretary of State Jim Smith was a close friend who frequently drove him to Jacksonville for treatments. Smith and Wetherell have been close since Wetherell went to bat for Smith when he ran for governor in 1986. Smith did not win but he did carry Volusia County with Wetherell’s help.

Smith and his wife, Carole, were frequent Wetherell traveling companions and he presided over the Wetherells’ wedding to Virginia Bass Wetherell, a former legislator from Pensacola and former Secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Sometimes his humor skewered the highly political process of making laws.

One year as Florida House appropriations chairman, Wetherell decided to settle some of the last-minute budget maneuvering by lawmakers who wanted more money for special projects in their districts by appropriating a million dollars for work at “Silver Beach.’’

There was no such beach. Wetherell just used the fictitious spot to park money in the budget that could be used for negotiating at the end. Once he offered reporters a free lottery ticket for the first one that could find another item hidden in the budget.

Many of those who worked with Wetherell did not realize he was essentially deaf in one ear – the ear he turned toward lobbyists who came to his office seeking favors.

Former Chief of Staff David Coburn recalled the gatherings where Wetherell would carefully seat the lobbyists next to his bad ear, “make all the appropriate sounds’’ and then turn to staff when they left and ask “so what did they say?’’

Reporters loved him. He was always good with a quote and loved the give-and-take of being covered by an aggressive press corps. He answered questions. He did not hide from reporters. He was a reporter’s dream, and you always knew he was up to something interesting.

He came to Tallahassee as an FSU student in 1963 and returned as a legislator in 1980. He was elected to replace former Speaker Hyatt Brown, one of the best-known lawmakers of the day. Both were from Daytona Beach and Wetherell was celebrated by fellow lawmakers because, when he went back home to his district, he often returned to Tallahassee with his father’s smoked mullet to share with colleagues.

He attended FSU on a football scholarship and played on the 1963-67 football teams. He still holds the record for the longest kickoff return in FSU history. He went on to earn his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from FSU and later a doctorate in education administration.

His love of FSU football was without end. Last week, former FSU Coach Jimbo Fisher was in town to see his son win an award at a local high school. Smith took him to visit Wetherell.

“T.K. woke up and saw us and said “Hey Jimbo – keep beating the F—ing Gators’’ before drifting off to sleep again,’’ Smith said.

Anti-feminist politicos and talk show yakkers try to ridicule the reality that women in our rich and advanced society might endure any “oppression.” America isn’t Afghanistan, they snort. Women here get to vote. Girls play all kinds of sports and can grow up to be astronauts or CEOs or anything. Why, we even had one […]

Anti-feminist politicos and talk show yakkers try to ridicule the reality that women in our rich and advanced society might endure any “oppression.” America isn’t Afghanistan, they snort. Women here get to vote. Girls play all kinds of sports and can grow up to be astronauts or CEOs or anything. Why, we even had one nominated for president two years ago!

Well, women certainly have made strides from the colonial chauvinism of 1789, and they’ve escaped much of the suffocating paternalism of the “Father Knows Best” years. But is that our highest standard? It’s ridiculous, dishonest and socially destructive to pretend that the 51 percent majority of us are getting anywhere near the fair share of power and respect they’re due.

In corporations, universities, government offices and elsewhere, there is usually an oppressive male culture and a repressive power structure that routinely shortchange women on pay (generally a third less than men doing comparable work, with black and Latina women making even less) and on promotions. That’s bad enough, but adding insult to injury, prevailing conventional wisdom blames women for this! They’re not “career-oriented,” or they’re too thin-skinned, or they’re not aggressive enough, or they’re too moody, and they need to “lean in” more. Delve just a smidgen deeper, however, and voila! The core cause of this deep and pervasive discrimination is the glaring inequality of power that men hold over women.

Amazingly, the impact on working women of blunt-force sexual crudity by superiors has only recently been deemed a major cause of workplace problems. Spurred by the explosion of hundreds of thousands of #MeToo revelations, harassment has finally climbed to the top-of-the-charts ranking of things holding back women in practically every line of employment:

In recent surveys, 81 percent of women say they’ve experienced some form of sexual harassment.

About half of girls say they’ve encountered harassment in their schools.

Employers and officials usually discount the veracity of women/girls who complain, and accept the denials of men who’re accused.

Male hierarchies, meekly supported by some women, tend to ostracize and retaliate against victims who report abuse.

Some 80 percent of young women who’ve been harassed on the job tell surveyors that rather than file a complaint that higher-ups won’t take seriously, they just leave the jobs. Some places just don’t think it’s a big deal that their organizational hierarchy tolerates a grab-ass mentality and allows abuse. Their attitude is, “Hey, no one’s making you work here.” More commonly, though, harassment and discrimination persist because leadership only addresses it bureaucratically, incrementally and ever so cautiously. While those in charge of these companies and groups loudly condemn all such actions as “unacceptable,” they quietly accept the actions by doing nothing more than setting up a “diversity committee” or providing some “sensitivity training.”

A couple of abuser factors are in play here: One is that the offenders lawyer up, so the response to the abuse ends up focused primarily on limiting the institution’s liability, rather than concentrating on cleansing the toxic culture. Second is what I call “The Willie,” borrowed from Willie Nelson’s humorous idea that he wants his tombstone to read, “He meant well.” In a nefarious twist of Nelson’s droll humor, honchos of many high-profile brand-name outfits these days proclaim that they are committed to leading the charge for justice and respect for women in the workplace, but whoa! Let’s not push too hard, too fast.

Jamie Dimon is a prime example of those who cry for progress but then throttle back to a putt-putt pace. As CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Dimon has cultivated an image of an enlightened Wall Streeter who touts the merits of having female decision-makers throughout the bank’s corporate structure. “It is the right thing to do, plain and simple,” he told New York Times interviewer Rebecca Blumenstein in September. Yet, when she gently noted that JP Morgan’s 11-member governing board includes only two women (18 percent), Dimon’s enlightenment dimmed. He says he can only go so far in trying to do the right thing: “It’s hard for me to do a board search and say I’m only going to look at women.” Really? Why?

]]>https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/14/the-core-cause-of-pervasive-discrimination-and-sexual-harassment/feed/0174499Uproar over FL Education Commissioner: Critics push for a national search and a candidate with an education backgroundhttps://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/13/uproar-over-fl-education-commissioner-critics-push-for-a-national-search-and-a-candidate-with-an-education-background/
https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/13/uproar-over-fl-education-commissioner-critics-push-for-a-national-search-and-a-candidate-with-an-education-background/#respondThu, 13 Dec 2018 12:00:22 +0000https://www.floridaphoenix.com/?p=174516Quality Journalism for Critical Times

Governor-elect Ron DeSantis’s controversial pick for Florida Education Commissioner has sparked angry tweets, petitions and protests as critics call for a national search and a candidate with a background in education. When the State Board of Education meets Monday to consider who should be appointed as Commissioner of Education, protesters may be there. “Based on […]

Governor-elect Ron DeSantis’s controversial pick for Florida Education Commissioner has sparked angry tweets, petitions and protests as critics call for a national search and a candidate with a background in education.

When the State Board of Education meets Monday to consider who should be appointed as Commissioner of Education, protesters may be there.

“Based on what I’ve seen, it is very unusual for a state not to go though some sort of national search,” said Kristen Amundson, president of the National Association of State Boards of Education.

But states have leeway to select an Education Commissioner, using assorted requirements, Amundson says. And not all commissioners or state school superintendents have education credentials, such as a backgrounds in classroom teaching or school administration.

Current Education Commissioner Pam Stewart has spent nearly 40 years in education, starting out as a classroom teacher. Likewise, former Commissioners Frank Brogan and John Winn, among others, had lengthy education backgrounds.

But other Florida Education Commissioners have been attorneys, politicians and businessmen, including Tom Gallagher and Charlie Crist.

DeSantis has recommended former House Speaker Richard Corcoran, 53, as Education Commissioner, to lead the nation’s third-largest K-12 school system. He’s an astute politician and attorney — he graduated from a small law school at Regent University, a private Christian university.

Corcoran has no formal education credentials, but in the Legislature, he championed nontraditional public charters operated by private groups and scholarship programs that allow public dollars for students to attend private schools.

Supporters, such as former Gov. Jeb Bush, have endorsed DeSantis’s choice for Education Commissioner.

But groups including the Florida Education Association and League of Women Voters of Florida oppose putting Corcoran in the position without a national search for the best candidate with education credentials.

Overall, the Florida Education Association has been highly critical of Corcoran.

In an email to the Florida Phoenix, FEA President Fedrick Ingram said: “Richard Corcoran is not the right candidate for the job. Time and again as House speaker, he demonstrated open hostility for public education — starving public schools of funds, pushing for charter schools and privatization at the expense of our traditional neighborhood schools. Corcoran lacks experience in education. He’s a political insider.”

The FEA launched a letter-writing campaign online, asking supporters to block Corcoran for Education Commissioner. It’s website warns: “Florida’s students need a leader of our public education system who knows public schools, who understands how our students learn and the needs of education staff. They do not need a political insider or someone dedicated to using public tax dollars for private or for-profit education.

Tell State Board of Education members to conduct a national search to hire a highly qualified, highly credentialed education professional to be Florida’s education commissioner.”

Other critics have gone to Twitter to rally against Corcoran, asking educators and others to converge at the Capitol on Monday to demand a search for a new Commissioner.

League of Women Voters of Florida president Patricia Brigham last week wrote a letter to State Board of Education chair Marva Johnson and other board members, saying, “As members of the State Board of Education you not only have the opportunity, but a constitutional responsibility, to conduct a national search to find the person who is best suited to oversee Florida’s system of public education.”

The letter also reminds the board that it has the responsibility to pick the new Education Commissioner— not the governor.

That said, key people on the State Board of Education are intermingled with Governor-elect Ron DeSantis, who set up a transition team to advise him on education matters.

The co-chair of DeSantis’s education transition team is Marva Johnson – who is also the State Board of Education chair. Also on DeSantis’s education transition team is Andy Tuck, the vice chairman of the State Board of Education.

Neither Johnson nor Tuck responded to questions from the Florida Phoenix. DeSantis’s education transition team meets Thursday at Florida State University – a few days before the Monday meeting at the State Board of Education.

Amundson, president of the National Association of State Boards of Education, said it is important to keep in mind that the Commissioner of Education has a tough job – most commissioners have a tenure of two to three years.

And whoever is chosen for Education Commissioner will need some top-notch deputies and administrators.

“Somebody has to make sure that the special education money gets applied, accounted for and distributed. Somebody has to make sure the state test results get back as soon as possible,” Amundsen said. “Some of that stuff is just hard, and it involves a real knowledge of how the process works.”

]]>https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/13/uproar-over-fl-education-commissioner-critics-push-for-a-national-search-and-a-candidate-with-an-education-background/feed/0174516Will Florida try again for state tax incentives to attract the film industry?https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/12/will-florida-try-again-for-state-tax-incentives-to-attract-the-film-industry/
https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/12/will-florida-try-again-for-state-tax-incentives-to-attract-the-film-industry/#respondWed, 12 Dec 2018 12:00:28 +0000https://www.floridaphoenix.com/?p=174480Quality Journalism for Critical Times

Eight years ago, Florida kicked off a program to try to attract the film industry – and the jobs and publicity that come with it – to the Sunshine State. But the state program had problems, and by 2016 it had fizzled. Pinellas County-based actor Ricky Wayne says he’s constantly working these days, but rarely […]

“Everything is in Atlanta,” he says. “And everything else from the Mason-Dixon line over to the Texas/Louisiana border is regionalized into one gigantic market, with Atlanta being the main hub where everybody shoots.”

In Florida, he says, “our film infrastructure has been decimated.”

Now, there’s a small movement in Tallahassee to try to revive the tax incentives that could lure film and TV shows back to Florida, in part because Governor-elect Ron DeSantis has been ambiguous on the issue, not dismissing it outright. And that’s enough to inspire some legislators to try again in the spring 2019 legislative session.

“I think that the residual value that we get from some of these films and television shows that are produced in our state last long after the productions come and go,” says Sarasota County Republican state Senator Joe Gruters. “If it’s done right, it’s a major winner for local communities with jobs, and continues to drive tourists here.”

Gruters sponsored a bill in last spring’s legislative session that would have established a new motion picture organization to set specific criteria for evaluating incentive applications. The state’s past film industry incentive programs were on a first-come, first-serve basis that didn’t properly rank which projects were likely to produce the greatest economic impact or the largest number of jobs.

Though it died in committee, Gruters – who will chair the Commerce and Tourism Committee in the House next year – is working with officials from the trade group Film Florida to introduce something similar for the 2019 legislative session.

Georgia benefitted tremendously in recent years when neighboring states like Florida and Louisiana reduced film-industry tax incentive programs. The Peach State’s entertainment industry has grown from $240 million in 2007 to $9.5 billion, according to UGAToday.com.

Georgia provides a 20 percent tax credit for companies that spend $500,000 or more on production and post-production in Georgia, either on a single production or on multiple projects. The state grants an additional 10 percent tax credit if the finished project includes the state’s promotional logo, Variety reports. Georgia doesn’t cap the tax credits offered to individual projects and doesn’t have an annual cap on total credits for all approved projects – the sort of generous tax breaks that advocates say won’t work in Florida.

Gruter, the Sarasota state senator hoping to revive the film industry program, points to a recently released report by the nonprofit research group Florida TaxWatch that says state incentives for the entertainment industry are “both necessary and important.”

Even though the state incentive program is gone, there are still more than 4,400 established businesses in Florida’s film and entertainment industry, the third largest in the country following California and New York, TaxWatch reports.

“If the tax credit incentive program can be revised to ensure the state makes back its investment, to create jobs for Florida residents, to promote Florida tourism, and to pump additional revenue into local businesses, then TaxWatch believes it would be in the best interest of the state for the Legislature to consider such revisions,” the report says.

Incoming Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva is no fan, and his spokesman Fred Piccolo said Oliva “opposes corporate welfare.”

That killer phrase has been successfully branded by Americans for Prosperity – a libertarian Koch Industries group – over the past four years in rallying Florida opposition to economic incentive proposals, including sports stadiums, film and TV productions, or state agencies like Enterprise Florida which have offered tax breaks for corporations to relocate to the Sunshine State.

“Corporate welfare is wrong and Florida’s film incentive handouts have produced a measly 18 cents of the dollar return-on-investment for taxpayers,” Americans for Prosperity’s Andres Malves says, adding that his group would favor deregulation rather than enlisting taxpayers.

Malves is citing a study performed by the Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research on the entertainment tax incentive program that lawmakers passed in 2010 and ended in 2016. The original return-on-investment for the program was calculated at bringing in 46 cents to the state for every dollar expended. A 2015 update to that report reduced it to just 25 cents, and a 2018 update reduced that rate to just 18 cents.

And that’s not all: A 2016 analysis of film incentive programs conducted by University of Southern California accounting professor Charles Swenson from 1998-2011 concluded that other than California and New York, other state programs resulted in “moderate growth, no growth, and even negative post-incentive growth.”

“There’s production houses, there’s hotels, there’s food…and so many resources that are required to make a film, it’s a no-brainer,” says Michael Brown of Digital Caviar, which is producing a marine-themed family picture, Bernie the Dolphin 2. It’s a sequel to Bernie the Dolphin, which was shot earlier this year in Pinellas County and at Marineland in St. Augustine and was released theatrically and on demand in early December.

“If you incentivize a production to come to the area,” Brown says, “I mean, everybody is going to benefit from it, and it’s not just specifically the film community.”

Advocates acknowledge that the tax incentive plan approved in 2010 was wrongheaded in many ways and needs to be reshaped. The original law approved projects on a first-come, first-serve basis that didn’t discriminate on which would produce the greatest economic impact or the largest number of jobs.

Tampa-based talent agent Kelly Paige (Ozark, the Walking Dead) says Florida should start offering a targeted grant program, which would include metrics such as how “Florida-centric” the project is, with an emphasis on its potential to bring tourists to the region.

One of the favorite talking points for advocates for reviving an incentive program for the film industry is the success of Dolphin Tale, a 2011 picture filmed at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium that led to a 2014 sequel.

The durable popularity of Winter and Hope (the two dolphins featured in the movies) has dramatically increased attendance at the aquarium from less than 100,000 annually before the first film was released to a high of over 800,000 in 2015. Clearwater Aquarium CEO David Yates says today’s annual attendance is now about 600,000.

Across the country, 32 states offer some sort of subsidies to reimburse producers for money spent filming movies or TV shows.

During the campaign for governor, Democratic candidates Andrew Gillum, Gwen Graham and Philip Levine advocated for state programs to attract the film industry. Levine says while Florida leaders continue to talk about diversifying the economy, the state should invest in its number-one proven asset – tourism, and Florida-based TV shows and movies would help.

If he were governor, he says, “I think I would be doing everything in my power to incentivize a clean industry that serves multiple purposes for the state’s economy – which is film and TV production.”

Most of us learn from early in life that politics is a grimy, dirty business. It is. There was a time, however, when politicians engaged in unsavory activities and hatched backdoor deals in the shadows, under cover of darkness. But as the Georgia governor’s race illustrated, there are shameless Republicans who are hell bent on […]

Most of us learn from early in life that politics is a grimy, dirty business. It is.

There was a time, however, when politicians engaged in unsavory activities and hatched backdoor deals in the shadows, under cover of darkness. But as the Georgia governor’s race illustrated, there are shameless Republicans who are hell bent on winning at any cost and the public and critics be damned.

Since November 10 – the day after the midterms – I have walked around incensed, slowing stewing in a cauldron of anger after watching a theft in plain sight.

It was clear from the very beginning that the fix was in.

I watched the bitter, contentious tug-of-war between former state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams and then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp with interest, especially in the days after polls closed. Using what is widely acknowledged as systematic voter suppression put in play when he took office nine years ago, Kemp laid the groundwork that would tilt the election decidedly in his favor.

Abrams was trying to become the first black woman governor in the country. If she had garnered enough votes to deny Kemp a 50 percent-plus-one total, she’d have “lived to fight another day” — but she fell about 50,000 votes short of forcing a runoff.

She argued strenuously and convincingly that the election was neither free nor fair, and her campaign adeptly used the courts and federal judges to blunt Kemp’s chicanery and attempt to take his thumb off the scales.

After Abrams bowed out, a respected legal scholar and expert in election law cautioned Democrats not to say that Kemp stole the election because such a charge would feed mistrust and damage the integrity of the elections process.

Really? Really?

So it’s okay for Kemp and other seedy, larcenous Republicans to engineer the blatant theft of black and other non-white votes, and the victims should chalk it up, be civil and give the miscreants engaged in such malfeasance a pass?

Hell no.

I couldn’t help but wonder about the naivete of ceding ground to people intent on subverting political norms and trampling the rights of black people as long as they win. And I thought of all the times that Africans in America have been called upon to accept political marginalization and disrespect from clueless apologists more interested in maintaining the status quo than in ensuring fairness and justice.

Despite repeated calls by Abrams, former President Jimmy Carter, Georgia Democratic Party officials and other critics for Kemp to step down as Georgia’s Secretary of State, he refused and oversaw his own election, engineered the means to control the outcome and became Georgia’s next governor.

This country and the world saw Kemp block, parry, obstruct, impede and thwart the legitimate efforts of Democrats – particularly black, Asian and Latino voters – and in the end slide into the governor’s mansion in a closely watched race characterized by what elections experts, pundits and others said was the epicenter of voting rights, voter suppression and voter manipulation. Kemp ultimately resigned as Secretary of State in November, but only after declaring victory over Abrams in the governor’s race.

The governor-elect drew from a playbook widely used by Republicans in legislatures across the country. According to the nonprofit Brenner Center for Justice, the “widespread, intense and brazen” voter suppression in Georgia and elsewhere is the worst it’s seen in the modern era.

On Election Day 2018, citizens in 24 states faced new laws making it harder for them to vote than in 2010. In nine of those states, it was harder to vote than it was in 2016, according to the Brennan Center.

The Republicans’ war on democracy found new life in the summer of 2013 when the U.S. Supreme Court (in considering the Shelby County v Holder case) declared Section 4 of the landmark Voting Rights Act unconstitutional.

The next day, Republican lawmakers began enacting and implementing a slew of voter suppression measures because states were no longer under federal government oversight.

Consequently, the GOP has made it increasingly difficult for black people to cast ballots. Lack of federal oversight allowed Kemp to close 214 polling locations, slash early voting, purge voters for spurious reasons and place 53,000 voters in limbo during the midterms with the “exact match” program. (That program keeps voter registration applications pending — or cancels them altogether — if an applicant’s identity doesn’t match exactly to state and federal records.)

Abrams, in an interview on State of the Union, backed up her characterization of Kemp as “the architect of voter suppression” by pointing out his removal of 1.5 million voters from voter rolls since 2009, his delay and denial of new voter registrants, and the systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans, students, the elderly and the poor.

The GOP has clung to power utilizing fear, fraud, gerrymandering and voter manipulation. Lawmakers have used the boogeyman of voter fraud as the pretext for introducing tough and onerous measures and Republicans have revealed their true intentions: To siphon off enough Democratic votes to ensure that the Grand Ol’ Party retains control of the levers of power across the national political landscape.

Kemp will always face lingering questions about his legitimacy, the tactics he employed, the stark racist aspects of his rhetoric and campaign, as well as how and why he chose to oversee his own election as Secretary of State. But with these win-at-all-cost Republicans, such questions are ignored as long as they remain in power.

I was heartened when Abrams refused to concede and that she made it clear her remarks were not a concession speech. And I beamed when she told her supporters that she would not act as if the election was normal.

At a November press conference, she promised to continue to fight for fair and comprehensive elections. She acknowledged that Kemp would be certified as the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial election but like myself and others, questioned his legitimacy.

“You see, as a leader I should be stoic in my outrage and silent in my rebuke but stoicism is a luxury and silence is a weapon for those who would quiet the voices of the people,” she said. “And I will not concede because the erosion of our democracy is not right. To watch an elected official who claims to represent the people in this state baldly pin his hopes for election on suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote has been truly appalling.”

“Pundits and hyper-partisans will hear my words as a rejection of the normal order. You see, I’m supposed to say nice things and accept my fate. They will complain that I should not use this moment to recap what was done wrong or to demand a remedy,” she added.

“The law, as it stands, says that he received an adequate number of votes to become the governor of Georgia. And I acknowledge the law as it stands. I am a lawyer by training. And I am someone who’s taken a Constitutional oath to uphold the law. But we know, sometimes, the law does not do what it should and that something being legal does not make it right. This is someone who has compromised our systems. He’s compromised our democratic systems. And that is not appropriate.”

I admire Stacey Abrams’ chutzpah for not bowing down to conventional wisdom, for refusing to concede and especially for not being cowed by a rotten system and individuals who would purloin votes from her and expect her to say thank you.

To the chagrin of her critics, Abrams is not going away quietly.

She has created a new organization, Fair Fight Georgia; filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the Secretary of State’s office grossly mismanaged the election and the voter system, and is pushing the courts to reform the entire election system.

Specifically, the lawsuit asks the state to use paper ballots to validate the accuracy of elections; guarantee that there is enough election equipment so voters don’t have to wait in line for three hours or more; wants the Secretary of State’s office to no longer cancel voter registration of voters who haven’t participated in recent elections, and seeks to dilute or eliminate the state’s exact match law.

She may not have won the election, but Abrams always had her eyes on the big picture. And her efforts to clean up Georgia’s dirty and unscrupulous election machine will ultimately benefit that state’s voters, even those who support Kemp and his ilk.

Newly-elected Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani says she plans to fight for her constituents in Tallahassee, and that means the battle has begun in the status-quo world of Florida’s capital. The 28-year-old, independent-minded Eskamani is refusing to attend an event hosted by one of Tallahassee’s most powerful business and lobbying organizations — an unusual rebuff […]

Newly-elected Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani says she plans to fight for her constituents in Tallahassee, and that means the battle has begun in the status-quo world of Florida’s capital.

The 28-year-old, independent-minded Eskamani is refusing to attend an event hosted by one of Tallahassee’s most powerful business and lobbying organizations — an unusual rebuff to the establishment.

State lawmakers will be in the Capitol this coming week for their first committee meetings leading up to the 2019 legislative session, and Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) is slated to entertain freshmen lawmakers at the exclusive Governors Club on Tuesday.

But in a tweet issued out on Friday, Eskamani said she won’t be there.

AIF = “Associated Industries of Florida.” An affinity group who lobbies for their members like Big Sugar, Fossil Fuels & pharma (among others). They are hosting an event for Freshman at the Governor’s Club. I won’t be going & sent this to my Democratic colleagues. #sayfie#flapolpic.twitter.com/TawH8lhR0s

“Many AIF member groups (like Big Sugar, Fossil Fuel companies, big pharmaceutical companies, etc.) are hurting our state & its people through their business decisions and legislative priorities,” Eskamani wrote.

AIF describes itself as the “The Voice of Florida Business since 1920,” according to its website. And the sponsors for Tuesday’s reception include big players in the business sector: Duke Energy, Florida Power & Light, U.S. Sugar, Charter Communications, Florida Blue, HCA Florida and Anheuser-Busch.

As to the posh venue for the AIF event, Eskamani said the Governors Club “is an exclusive, membership-only environment not open to everyday Floridians.”

Eskamani, an Orlando native, is a daughter of Iranian immigrants, and her family “is no stranger to adversity,” according to her campaign website. Her father worked full-time as a waiter while earning his college degree in electrical engineering. Her mother, who died from cancer in 2004, worked minimum-wage jobs in fast food and at Kmart.

At the Governors Club, people can become a member if they are sponsored by two current members, according to its website, and there’s a price for admission – $1,500. Individuals under the age of 35 or who already have a parent who is a current member can have the fee reduced to $1,200.

Spokesperson Allison Ager says the Governors Club has a “very diverse cross-section of Club members.” And if an individual wants to join and doesn’t know any current members, “We will introduce you to members who would be more than willing to sponsor someone,” Ager says.

In a text message exchange, Eskamani said she wasn’t calling for any response or for any other lawmakers to join her in skipping the event, but just wanted to explain why she won’t be making an appearance.

She also said she looks forward to finding common ground working with AIF on certain issues, such as the space and film industries.

“I definitely want to inspire all of my elected colleagues to remember why we’re in Tallahassee: To fight for our districts and Floridians, not attend events at membership-only venues hosted by groups that have hurt our state for their own bottom-line.”

Eskamani defeated Republican Stockton Reeves in the House District 47 race last month by 14 percentage points, but she’s not a new face on the public policy scene in Florida.

She served for years as the senior director of public affairs and communications at Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, and calls herself a proud feminist and progressive.

Her comments are a rare example of a lawmaker speaking out on the corporate/lobbying establishment in Tallahassee, and they were embraced by some of her supporters.

University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett has known Eskamani for years, serving as her faculty adviser when she and her twin sister Ida were leaders of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society. He says he can’t remember when any lawmaker turned down a reception hosted by AIF.

“Anna is trying to shake things up and do things differently, and that’s what she consistently campaigned on for many, many months,” he says. “She ran as an unapologetic progressive and won by good margin, and now seems to be taking those values to Tallahassee and trying to do things a little different.”

]]>https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/10/taking-on-the-status-quo-freshman-democratic-lawmaker-says-no-thanks-to-attending-exclusive-corporate-sponsored-event/feed/0174437The haves and have nots in state worker pay: Disparity looms large in Florida’s capital.https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/07/the-haves-and-have-nots-in-state-worker-pay-disparity-looms-large-in-floridas-capital/
https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2018/12/07/the-haves-and-have-nots-in-state-worker-pay-disparity-looms-large-in-floridas-capital/#commentsFri, 07 Dec 2018 12:00:37 +0000https://www.floridaphoenix.com/?p=174390Quality Journalism for Critical Times

Tens of thousands of state workers earn an annual salary below the state average of roughly $43,500, but some high-echelon public employees earn six-figure salaries and can be eligible for public pensions as well. In some cases, those salaries are $200,000 to $300,000 and even higher, the Florida Phoenix found in a review of more […]

Tens of thousands of state workers earn an annual salary below the state average of roughly $43,500, but some high-echelon public employees earn six-figure salaries and can be eligible for public pensions as well.

In some cases, those salaries are $200,000 to $300,000 and even higher, the Florida Phoenix found in a review of more than 100,000 state employee salaries in state agencies and departments.

Those high-salaried employees are somewhat akin to the “one percent” that became a political movement surrounding the concentration of wealth in America.

The top earners in Florida’s state agencies are usually in fields of medicine, law and finance, which can be lucrative even in the public sector, state data show.

The high salaries are particularly significant because taxpayer dollars, with some exceptions, largely fund state employee salaries.

In a broad look at the statewide payroll, the Phoenix also found that high salaries exist in at least a half-dozen state departments and agencies that have fewer than about 225 employees, including the tiny Department of Citrus, based in Bartow, which is down to 24 full-time staffers, state data show.

That raises questions about whether the state could consider consolidating small agencies with other departments, to save money and potentially get rid of duplicative positions, such as high-paying, top executive employees.

Governor-elect Ron DeSantis is considering who should be in top posts at the various departments and agencies and how much they should earn. How everything will play out isn’t clear.

But on the campaign trail, DeSantis touted a platform to “Keep Florida’s Bureaucracy in Check,” saying “Government plays a necessary role in our lives, but that role should be limited. Florida’s state agencies must run efficiently and effectively.”

In addition, his campaign platform said, “Bureaucracy has the unique ability to run amok and grow unless it is monitored and kept in check. Government should not grow unless the needs of the state demand it. As Governor, Ron DeSantis will ensure our state government, which operates on tax dollars, is run efficiently and serves the needs of Floridians, not the interests of a bureaucrat.”

Average salaries by state agencies are wide apart

The Phoenix calculated average salaries for 34 agencies, departments, commissions and other entities listed in state data provided by the state Department of Management Services. It’s posted on the Florida Has a Right to Know state website.

The averages are based on employees who are salaried and work fulltime. (Some employees work part-time or get paid by hourly rates, so that data was not included.)

The result was a picture of haves and have nots in the statewide public payroll system.

The department with the highest average salary was $96,075, at the State Board of Administration, which manages billions in retirement pensions and investments in Florida and handles other major finance matters. It’s not uncommon for portfolio managers, administrators and other employees to earn annual salaries of $200,000 or more, according to the data.

In contrast, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities had the lowest average salary, $33,744. There, certified nursing assistants and “human services” workers, for example, earn about $22,000, or less.

The data shows that other agencies with the lowest average salaries in state government often work with vulnerable or troubled populations.

Those salary averages are: The Department of Veterans’ Affairs ($35,298); Department of Juvenile Justice ($35,966); Department of Children and Families ($37,136), and the Department of Corrections ($37,236).

Following the State Board of Administration’s figure, the highest average salaries for other agencies and departments are: the State Courts System that includes Florida Supreme Court Justices and other judges and legal employees ($72,841); the Department of Citrus ($69,470); the Division of Administrative Hearings ($64,139); the Agency for State Technology ($62,242); and the Executive Office of the Governor ($59,994).

Gov. Rick Scott, who is extraordinarily wealthy, has declined to take a state salary. In the data, his salary is listed as 12 cents.

Highest salaries for individual state employees

Overall, the Phoenix found 2,358 full-time, salaried state agency employees earning $100,000 or more, about 2.4 percent of all salaried employees listed in the data. Of those, 1,010 earned $150,000 or more.

Only three dozen earned $200,000 or more.

Kurt Wenner, vice president of research at the Florida TaxWatch organization in Tallahassee, say those very high government salaries are essentially outliers.

“I think when you start getting up to $200,000, those are special circumstances, Wenner said. He added, “I don’t think Florida salaries are generally out of whack with other states.”

Recent news accounts have reported a state government salary of $867,000 for a California chief investment officer, and a doctor in Ohio earning nearly $600,000 at a state department related to mental health.

At Florida’s State Board of Administration, executive director Ashbel Williams Jr. posted $455,000 in base salary in the state data.

But spokesman John Kuczwanski said that salary went up recently, to $525,000. In addition, Williams can get incentive pay that could add to his base salary. And as a state employee, he is eligible for a state pension.

Kuczwanski said the recent increase for Williams is in step with the market and peers elsewhere who manage major public pension funds.

Top earners also include Carolyn Drazinic, chief of medical services at the Department of Children and Families, with a salary of about $317,000, and Pam Stewart, Florida’s Education Commissioner, who posted a salary of $276,000. Charles Canady, Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, reported a salary of $220,600, with several other justices earning the same.

As Education Commissioner, Stewart was one of the highest-paid state school superintendents in the country.

This week, she tendered a letter of resignation, saying she plans to retire.

Governor-elect DeSantis has recommended that former House Speaker Richard Corcoran be appointed as Education Commissioner. It’s not clear what Corcoran would earn if approved by the State Board of Education.

To look at and download public agency salaries, go on the Florida Has a Right to Know website: